The First Child and Youth Finance Regional Meeting for Europe and Central Asia will be held on November 6 and 7, 2012 in Brussels, Belgium. The Regional Meeting is organized with the support of the EACB (European Association of Cooperative Banks), the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), the European Banking Federation (EBF), UNICEF and the World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI). The event will bring together leading experts, practitioners and innovators from within Europe and Central Asia who are engaged in the issues of financial access and financial education for children and youth.
The event follows the success of the First Annual Child and Youth Finance Summit, which took place in April 2012 and which brought together 364 participants from 83 countries. It is in response to a request by the participants that a regional-specific approach to Child and Youth Finance be taken on. For Europe, this meeting comes at a time which is particularly pertinent in the current financial climate. Children in Europe make up 28.15% of the population, and only 31.9% of those between the ages of 15 – 25 years hold accounts at formal financial institutions. Furthermore, the youth unemployment rate stands at 20.8 %. A concerning rate, considering that approximately 2.45% of Europeans live on USD1.25 per day. These and other region-specific financial issues for children and youth will be at the focus of this meeting.
Meeting participants will include senior representatives from European governments, financial regulators, children’s rights organizations, multilateral agencies, education practitioners, financial service providers, academics, media personalities and other leaders in their fields. Over 100 global participants are expected to attend this Summit.
To access to the website dedicated to this first Regional Meeting for Europe and Central Asia, please click HERE.
To register for this event, please click HERE.
For the draft Agenda of this event, please click HERE.